Cell Phone for the trip
 

Can someone enlighten me regarding the best way to call back to the States? I know you can!

With car rental through AutoEurope, you get a cell phone for the cost of shipping, $35, incoming calls cost 99 cents/min, outgoing local calls are $1.20/min, and calls back to the States are $2.35/min. Is this worth it?

Lisa

I've been researching a similar question. I suggest you try the cell phone company my daughter is now using in Florence, Italy (on the recommendatoin of her university)-- PicCell.com. Her little Panasonic phone is free rental, incoming minutes while in Italy are free (no matter where they originate), and her per minute calling to the U.S. is 32 EU cents/minute, or about 40 USD cents, which is a lot cheaper than $2.35 you were quoted by AutoEurope. PicCell seems like a good company, and has been helpful via their 800 number, too. Good luck.

maureen - I'm having trouble with that link. It takes me to a Japanese website. Is this the right one?

Sorry-- it's as follows--

http://www.piccellwireless.com

That one should work. Sorry for the inconvenience, and good luck.

P.S. The rates I quoted for my daughter's plan is for their Student plan.

The cheapest way to call back to the states is with a prepaid calling card that you buy in the country you are calling from (5E for 200 minutes is a good example).

If you want a cell phone only for emergencies and don't expect to rack up very many minutes, the peace of mind and convenience of getting it from AutoEurope might make it worth the $50 or less that you'd pay. (You could do this and also get a cheap calling card that can be used with the cell phone for transatlantic calls. It would cut the cost of your calls home by almost half -- just be sure the calling card provides a local number for use with cell phones.)

If you'll need to use the cell phone quie a bit, then you's do better to spend time researching the issue. There have been lots of threads on this topic here.

Hi M,

>With car rental through AutoEurope, you get a cell phone ....<

Not as good as it seems. They put a $500 hold on your CC in case the phone is not returned.

If you will only make a few calls, and want a phone for emergencies, see the $49 phone at www.mobal.com.

It will be yours for your next trip, too.

((I))

We rented a cell phone for Italy with travelcell.com. I think it was $35.00 for the phone. We never used it but had the need to be accessible in case of emergency so you'd have to check the rates on their website but we loved the peace of mind having it.

I rented one from cells4rent.com, they are great and very inexpensive. You can rent one for 15e for the month and they do not charge you for any incoming calls from US. Outgoing calls to the US is 30 cents a minute. Good Luck!